Ty and Cody

I took some pictures today when we were playing with Cody in the round pen,and taking a short walk. Ty said that he wants his horse to be: calm, obedient, smart, strong, and brave. Judging from what Cody did today, I think Ty got what he wanted! I thought Ty was really cute, he went and put on his medicine bag just before we wwnt to work with Cody!

Cody - Ty's Mustang

We are very excited to finally find a horse especially for Ty. Cody, his new little Mustang, will be 2 in April. A Parelli trainer named Rico has been working with Cody for the past 1 1/2, and Cody is very friendly and has great manners! Rico and his wife Ann, are Native Americans, and they had a little ceremony for Ty. It was a beautiful day and a fun afternoon! In the pictures you can see: Rico singing an original song about Mustangs, and Ann doing a purification ceremony and giving Ty a Medicine Bag. Rico also gave a demonstration of some of the Parelli games he's been using to train Cody. The last picture is of Ty petting his new companion before the trip home.

The Boys

We took a quick trip to see the boys this weekend! They had to work during the day, so we decided to go on a day trip to the State Fair! The trip was great - and the boys are doing awesome!

Mujeres del Tamales

That means Tamale Women! Today that's what we were! Michelle and her two little girls, and Emma and I made tamales. Some were meat tamales, others were dessert tamales made with raisins and peanuts! There can't be any better way to learn Spanish than to work (or cook)together! Emma es la mejor Professora de Espanole y Cocinar en todo la mundo! (That's supposed to mean Emma is the best teacher of Spanish and Cooking in the entire world - but I'm pretty sure it's not entirely right!) Anyway - it was fun and the tamales are great!

Indulge Me Please!

Donkeys can live to be 40 years old. Since MiHijo is the last equine I will ever need, I am being thorough in his upbringing! I decided that when I'm 90, I may not feel like bending over to pick things up, so I taught MiHijo to "give it to me please!" I am asking for the can in the first picture. He is handing it to me in the 2nd! The 3rd picture doesn't need explanation - the gloat says it all!!

Yeah Clay!!!!!

I have a new hero! It's Clint Haverty - Clay's boss! He encouraged Clay to go back to college, and even offered to let him go during the day without penalty to wages! Clay took him up on the offer, and is now enrolled as a full time student, taking Business classes at Texas Women's University!! I've been giving Clay all sorts of grief about going to a womens college! He says the 82% female poplulation has nothing to do with his decision - but I'm not buying it! What do you think?

Bacon - Not

Teryn and Ty have been trapping coyotes with snares. They've caught 12 coyotes in 4 weeks. Sometimes they catch javelinas in the snares, and the other day they caught this big hog. Don't worry - it looks like Bacon - but it's not! Bacon is still hanging out at the house with us!

Tis The Season

Here are a few pictures from Christmas. There are pictures from Ty's Christmas Concert, shepards in waiting for the Live Nativity, and Tricia trying on her new Roboso. We were incredibly happy to get a picture of Pop Pop and Ryanna because she has been in ICU much of the week with a wicked respiratory illness called RSV! She (and Mom and Dad) are finally home - and Ty finally got to open his presents. After looking at the picture, Teryn said that he thinks that Ryanna has his nose! The pictures I DIDN'T get were of Teryn Lee and Holly - what was I thinking - I guess they'll have to wait till next time! I also didn't get any of Clay - because he wasn
t able to come home. We're planning a trip up there soon, so stay posted!

Spittin' Image

Thought I'd post a couple of pictures of Belle! Those of you who knew us when Trish was a baby, will probably have to agree that Belle is the Spittin' image of her momma - and you might even recognize the little sweater Belle is wearing. My mother (G-Gmaw) crocheted that for Trish almost 30 years ago. 'Scuze me - Trish prefers me to be more exact when discussing her age - 28 years ago!

Review of '07

This Blog is taking the place of my annual Christmas Letter. Since I didn't start Blogging until May, I thought I'd add a paragraph to cover January through April.

I often feel that I'm living life in fast forward - and January '07 definately qualified as that kind of month! Teryn spent 3 weeks in South Texas with his parents and sister to help out with health concerns. That meant that I juggled work, and caring for the exotics and our animals. We had 3 snows during that time and of course the goats all had babies too. The combination of the freezing weather and really large babies caused many of them to have low blood sugar - which looks like dead babies and has to be dealt with quickly or they do die! Needless to say, I had a crash course in infant goat resusitation.
We had a wonderful surprise in February when Sierra had a baby donkey. MiHijo is my dog/horse, and I'm having great fun teaching him his manners, and tricks.
Teryn Lee experienced a major victory in March when he won a Cowboy Extreme Competition. It's a sort of Cowboy obstacle course. It was televised in September on RFDTV. He won a saddle and prize money, but most of all, it opened lots of doors in the horse industry.
I went on an Emmaus walk in April, and had a wonderful experience. I highly recommend Emmaus if you've never experienced it!
I guess that's about it for the first part of the year! No pictures - just a lot of old news! Please scroll through the blog for news from the rest of the year! The blog may make more sense if you look at it in reverse order - May is at the very bottom! I hope you enjoy!

Teryn and the Cow(d/h)ogs

Teryn was going to check a pasture! Lucky man, he always has plenty of help! Seriously, Lori and Jake do what Teryn asks them to do and take the place of a man. Bacon just does what she wants!

Nativity Donkey

The Live Nativity is coming soon. MiHijo is too young to carry Mary this year, but he's going to dress up and go - just to see what it's all about!

Cowhog

Teryn is taking the "Cowhog" concept to a new level! Maybe he's spending too much time alone on the ranch!

New Arrival Coming Soon

I hope I will be able to get a good picture of Tricia's belly before RyAnne decides to make her appearance. But until then, I thought I'd share a 'Tyism' with you. Ty told Tio TLee that if the baby isn't born before this Tuesday the Dr. would 'reduce' Trish! I'm not sure reduce isn't more accurate than induce! Stay tuned, I'm pretty sure there'll be lots of new baby pictures soon!

Ty's Surgery

Thought I'd add a picture of Ty in his splint and crutches. He had a condition called Osteo Chondroma, and they had to remove a growth on his femur. He is doing great, but his mom says he is a "demanding patient."

Clay at Work

One stop during our trip was to see Clay at his new job. He said that he really enjoys his work, and doesn't have any regrets about leaving school! He said that Mr. Haverty is great to work with! Also he does leather work, something that Clay has been interested in for a long time. Mr. Haverty helped Clay make some spur leathers for Teryn's birthday. In these pictures he is: riding, washing a horse down after it was worked, and putting cold splints on a horse.

National Finals Cowboy Extreme

Teryn Lee accepting the Champion ship buckle from Craig Cameron. The following are the media resources you can go to if you want to hear interviews, or see pictures and videos!
***The following site has professional photos of the Cowboy Extreme contest. Just click on the site below, If you want to see a picture close up, you can double click on it. http://merrickstudios.morephotos.com/mp_client/pictures.asp

***If you want to hear an interview you can go to http://www.betterhorsesradio.com/ Go to archives and find the interview for June 30 - July 1. Teryn Lee is on the last 10 minutes of the show.

***If you want to view the Cowboy Extreme race that was televised on RFDTV you can go to http://horsecity.com/videos/online_directory/index.shtml?bcpid=626986556&bclid=716123410&bctid=752475562

Teryn Lee and Holly Sue breathing a sigh of relief after the results were announced! Pictures of the part of the support crew!

Supreme Extreme Cowboy

HE WON!!! It was amazing! I'm posting a few pictures tonight, but still have tons to do before work in the morning. I'll post more this weekend! The pictures are: 1) the new buckle, 2) part of the 'support' crew - notice the blue shirts advertising Calvin - compliments of Triangle Quarter Horse, 3) TLee giving 'Mawmaw' a victory hug!

Muench Bros

Couldn't resist. Had to post a picture of the brothers!

Mi Viejo

Today is Teryn's 51st birthday. We usually celebrate birthdays for a week, and Teryn's started Sunday when Tricia's bunch came out for some lunch. I wish I would have thought to snap a picture! Today, the neighbors made him some birthday brownies. The picture is Teryn with the neighbor kids. We'll see what we find to do the rest of the week to celebrate the birth of the sweetest man in the universe!

My Happy Little Burro

How do you like little MiHijo's smile? I've learned that you can't teach a donkey to smile without smiling yourself! Now that we have that trick mastered, we're going to start learning to count.

Pray for Frito

American Family Radio is currently doing a campaign to get listeners to pray for children in underdeveloped countries. All you do is go to www.worldvision.com, and select a child. They will send you an information packet about the child and his country so you will know specific needs. The only obligation is to pray for that child for 30 days!
It's an amazing campaign because we are instructed to pray for things like clean water, nutritious food, and educational materials. It helps the child, but it also helps us remember how fortunate we are, AND how much we take for granted! Even just surfing on the World Vision site is an amazing education!
'Our Child' is Frito Jean Pierre, a little 4-year-old from Haiti. His birthday is May 15th (our anniversary)! I invite you to pray for little Frito with us, or commit to your own child through World Vision.

Those Aren't Rain Clouds!!!

As we were leaving to go to Chapel this afternoon, we saw a fire truck headed out our way, so we looked back and saw the smoke of a huge fire! We couldn't really tell where the fire was located, but it looked like it could be close to our house, so we turned around and made a bee-line for the ranch. When we finally got to the ranch we found that the fire was about 3 miles south of the house and heading southwest. Hopefully the wind won't change to where it is headed towards the barns or the house. We keep the horses in the 'House Pasture' so they'll graze and keep the grass low, just in case! Anyway, there are 7 firefighters, 3 fire trucks, and Teryn working the fire right now.

The fire lasted about 6 hours and burnt up about 2 sections of land. We're not complaining though! Nothing was destroyed except lots of grass - it could have been sooo much worse! The firemen were able to weaken the fire, then when it tried to jump a dirt road, it fizzled and died! Teryn told me that every few years lightening hits that pasture and burns it! This picture was taken from the carport!

Ty and Friends

Clay's Exciting New Plans

We are very excited to let everyone know that Clay has new plans. He went to see Teryn Lee this weekend, and talk to different trainers in the hopes of getting a job working with horses. He wound up siging on with Clint Haverty, a world champion reining horse trainer. I've included a couple of websites below for those of you interested in learning more.
I'm inserting quotes from different sites that made me particularly happy!
“Mr. Haverty meticulously prepares both his students and horses for all phases of competition.”
"Clint is well known for his extraordinary generosity of spirit and willingness to help his fellow reiners in their time of need. For instance, when Tim Lynch was struggling with a serious back injury, Clint went to his farm, picked up several of his horses and continued the training process at no cost to Lynch. “Other trainers followed Clint’s lead,” says Lynch. “And we were not only able to meet our obligations, but we were also given a peace of mind that helped my recovery.”

It sounds like Clay's new boss is a top notch man, and horse trainer! He's already looking out for Clay's best interests by encouraging Clay to continue with college, and even told him that he could go to college on Mr. Hagerty's time!

Clay will be living near Denton, about 1 hour from Teryn Lee.

www.havertyranch.com
www.nrha.com/media/20050119a.html

Amazing Chivo

Chivo isn't a puppy anymore! He is an amazing, awesome guardian dog! We've seen him at work a couple of times - mostly around Bacon (the pig). The other day, though, Teryn gave Chivo a test! Teryn was riding a colt, and he knew the goats were across the hill from him. So he snuck up very quietly and hid behind a bush, then started making strange noises. Chivo did his job! He barked a warning to the goats and they bunched up, then he got between the goats and 'the threat.' He didn't attack, his MO is intimidation! Chivo has a very low, menacing, loud, bark/growl that would scare anything in it's right mind away! The attack might come when he gets older, and if the threat doesn't go away. I can't describe how amazing it is to watch him do what just comes naturally!! On a lighter note - when we feed him, Chivo comes up to us with a 'smile' on his face! I tried to get a picture - but anytime there is something out of the ordinary, he is on the lookout and doesn't cooperate!

Bacon Thinks She's a Dog

Due to popular demand, I am posting a couple more pictures of Bacon. She was resting under the trailer with the dogs when the first one was taken. Teryn was shoeing a horse and they were waiting for the 'hoof candy.'

Carlsbad Trip

Last weekend Ty, Sky, Teryn, and I went to NM to see the bat flights out of Carlsbad Caverns. There were probably close to 800,000 bats that flew out of the cave,it was pretty amazing!! We camped out at Lake Brantley and had a great time. In this picture, Sky is teaching Ty how to make a fire with a spark from a flint. I think that was Ty's highlight! Sky said his highlight was getting to swim in the lake!

Our Multi-Talented Pig

I've been wanting me to make a post about Bacon,a feral hog Teryn caught last spring. She has become quite a pet! Bacon follows us everywhere we go on the ranch, weather we walk or ride, she's always right there! In this picture she is helping Teryn gather cattle. Teryn teases the other cowboys that at least his 'cowhog' doesn't chase rabbits! The other morning the dogs were barking, and when Teryn looked out the window he saw a coyote (probably wanting to eat our 1 remaining hen for breakfast), anyway it was Bacon who chased it away! She also serves as "boar bait!" Twice we've had feral boars visiting at the house. We're pretty isolated out here, and it can be a little scary when I'm home alone, but the truth is I feel very safe with Bacon outside guarding things! She would intimidate anyone and make them go away!

The Remuda

Teryn wanted me to upload some pictures of our horses - they're a colorful bunch! Teryn and most of our old horses retired at the same time, so we wound up buying 3 young horses when we moved to the ranch last year. The new horses are :Snort & Huey - both sorrels, and a beautiful Blue Roan. We had 2 weanlings - Dun Bar's last babies. They are Chispa, the Gruella (the most beautiful horse we've ever had!) and Gus - a dun clone of his Dad!